Fuel Card Concerns Lead to State Audit in Bellflower, Raise Questions About What Happened in Silex

BELLFLOWER, Mo. — The Bellflower Fire Protection District is headed for a full state audit after concerns involving fuel purchases and financial records reached the Missouri State Auditor’s Office.

The Auditor’s Office first conducted a preliminary review before deciding to take a deeper look at the district’s finances. Information surrounding the concerns had also involved the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

What auditors ultimately find remains to be seen.

But about 30 miles away, the news out of Bellflower brought Lincoln CountyWatch back to a public meeting in Silex earlier this year — and a conversation about another set of fuel receipts.

In February, Silex officials were reviewing bills when questions were raised about signatures appearing on fuel receipts. Bob Zeh was contacted about records bearing his name.

He indicated he wasn’t the one signing them.

It happened in the middle of a public meeting, with city officials themselves discussing the records.

Lincoln CountyWatch began asking questions about the matter shortly afterward.

Six months later, we now know the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says it never received a criminal complaint or request to investigate it.

Bellflower’s situation is still developing.

The Missouri State Auditor’s Office is conducting a full audit of the Bellflower Fire Protection District after completing its preliminary review of information involving the district.

Lincoln CountyWatch has not confirmed that the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an active criminal investigation, and a state audit itself is not a finding that a crime occurred.

What the audit will do is put the district’s finances and records before an outside agency for examination.

Lincoln CountyWatch reached out to the Bellflower Fire Protection District for its side of the story. Firefighter Ted Hicks said the department was not providing a statement at this time.

Lincoln CountyWatch is also working to reach members of the district’s governing board directly.

While Bellflower waits for that examination to unfold, there has been no similar outside review identified in Silex.

The questions there surfaced in plain view.

During the February meeting, Silex officials were working through city bills and the records supporting those payments when the discussion turned to fuel receipts.

Questions were raised about signatures on the paperwork.

That led to Bob Zeh being contacted about receipts bearing his name.

Zeh indicated someone else had been signing his name.

For a city spending public money, that left an obvious issue to resolve: who was signing the receipts, why was someone else’s name being used and were the purchases themselves properly documented?

Lincoln CountyWatch raised the matter with the Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in March, within weeks of the meeting.

The conversation did not get far.

A member of the office told Lincoln CountyWatch that the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was not there to help us get our next story before ending the call.

The statement was not made by the elected prosecuting attorney, and Lincoln CountyWatch did not receive a determination from the office that a crime had or had not occurred.

What we also did not receive was an answer about whether anyone intended to examine what had just been discussed publicly in Silex.

Then the issue largely went quiet.

Until Bellflower.

With a neighboring public entity now facing a state audit after its own concerns involving fuel purchases and financial records, Lincoln CountyWatch went back to determine where the Silex matter had gone.

We asked the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

Its answer filled in an important piece of the story.

To the best of the agency’s knowledge, it has never received a criminal complaint or request for investigation regarding the Silex fuel receipts or an allegation that someone’s signature had been forged on those records.

The Sheriff’s Office is also unaware of any investigation by its agency into the matter.

That means there is an important distinction between no wrongdoing being found and what appears to have happened here.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office did not tell Lincoln CountyWatch that detectives investigated the receipts and found nothing criminal.

It says it was never asked to investigate them.

The Sheriff’s Office said a review now would depend on someone with firsthand knowledge reporting information indicating a possible criminal offense and providing enough facts for law enforcement to evaluate.

Lincoln CountyWatch also went back to Silex itself.

Mayor Lynne Luckett was contacted through Facebook and given an opportunity to explain what happened after the February meeting, including whether the city reviewed the receipts or referred the concerns elsewhere.

The message was read.

No response was received before publication.

There is also history behind why questions involving fuel records in Silex deserve more than a passing glance.

Silex Alderman David Rice Jr., pictured during a separate Board of Aldermen meeting, made the call to Bob Zeh during the February 2026 meeting as questions were raised about signatures appearing on fuel receipts.

When state auditors examined Silex in 2019, fuel purchases were already a problem.

The Missouri State Auditor’s Office gave the city a Poor rating and identified significant weaknesses in its financial controls.

Among those findings were the city's fuel cards.

Silex paid $16,874 in fuel charges during 2018, but auditors found the city lacked adequate procedures to monitor its fuel accounts and fuel usage for unauthorized activity.

The audit showed why those controls mattered.

The former city administrator and four other employees were placed on administrative leave in April 2019.

Afterward, auditors found those individuals made 10 fuel purchases totaling $504.

City officials did not know the cards were still being used until state auditors brought the purchases to their attention.

Auditors found employees shared fuel cards, individual fuel tickets were not required in some departments and mileage or fuel-usage logs were not maintained for city vehicles.

Without those records, the city could not readily determine whether every fuel purchase was actually for a city vehicle.

State auditors told Silex to tighten those controls by requiring fuel tickets, reconciling purchases against invoices and keeping mileage and usage records for city vehicles.

Silex responded by canceling its fuel cards and said former employees who improperly used them would be required to reimburse the city.

That audit was seven years ago.

It does not tell us what happened with the receipts discussed in February, and the problems uncovered in 2019 are not evidence that anyone did anything wrong in 2026.

But it adds a piece of history that cannot simply be left out of the story.

State auditors had previously told Silex that its controls over fuel purchases were inadequate.

Seven years later, city officials found themselves sitting at a public meeting questioning fuel receipts again — and hearing from a person whose name appeared on them that he wasn't the one signing them.

And that brings the story back to Bellflower.

Bellflower and Silex are not the same case, and there is no evidence that the conduct behind the two situations was the same.

They don't need to be the same for the comparison to matter.

In Bellflower, concerns involving fuel purchases and financial records eventually reached outside authorities. The Missouri State Auditor’s Office took a preliminary look and decided a full audit was warranted.

We will eventually know what that audit finds.

Silex is different.

The questions there surfaced publicly in February. Lincoln CountyWatch raised them with the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in March. Months later, the Sheriff’s Office says no criminal complaint or request for investigation ever reached its agency.

And the city has not explained what it did with the concerns after they were raised at its own meeting.

Maybe every Silex purchase was legitimate.

Maybe there is a simple explanation for the signatures.

Maybe the city reviewed everything internally and found an answer.

But those answers have not been provided.

And six months after a public meeting exposed the questions, Lincoln CountyWatch has been unable to establish that the records were ever independently examined at all.

Bellflower will now get that outside examination.

What it finds could answer the questions surrounding that district.

In Silex, the question is more fundamental.

Who ever looked?

Lincoln CountyWatch will continue seeking records and responses regarding the Silex fuel receipts and will update this story as additional information becomes available.

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